For the past year, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission has been conducting a study on the Oklahoma death penalty, and they just released their findings in a 300-page report. They found widespread issues within the capital punishment system, and as a result, the commission unanimously recommended a death penalty moratorium until the problems are addressed.

“Many of the findings of the Commission’s year-long investigation were disturbing and led Commission members to question whether the death penalty can be administered in a way that ensures no innocent person is put to death,” former Gov. Brad Henry, a a co-chair of the bipartisan commission, wrote in the introduction to its 300-page report.

“Oklahoma’s history of wrongful convictions, falsifying evidence, and botching executions clearly demonstrates that the state cannot and can never be trusted with the death penalty,” Marc Hyden, the national advocacy coordinator for Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, an anti-death penalty group, told Reason. “The risks are just too high, and when you look at the rewards, they’re far too low. The death penalty doesn’t deter crime, and often harms murder victims’ families, and I think this is the reason that so many conservatives are opposing the death penalty.”

“It’s great that this commission is highlighting so many problems that have marred their death penalty system,” Hyden continued, “but I think we also have to take a serious look at all the other issues too, and to me all these suggest that Oklahoma has not earned the trust of Oklahomans, the kind of trust they need to be able to wield the death penalty.”

Hyden pointed to a poll last year that found that while Oklahomans supported the death penalty 3 to 1, a majority, 53 percent, supported repealing the death penalty if it were replaced with life without parole, financial restitution, and property forfeiture.